Happy Thanksgiving

Eliot had a really nice first Thanksgiving. We went to a friend's parent's cabin on Mt. Adams in Washington, about 90 minutes east and a bit north from us. We arrived Thursday. Brady's friend's parents live on the property where the cabin is, in a lovely house they built to retire in, and they invited us to their Thanksgiving dinner, which was really lovely and great and sohospitable. And Eliot ate more in one sitting than he has ever eaten before. Mashed potatoes, mashed yams, turkey, gravy, squash, pumpkin pie, whipped cream. What's not to like? There were two girls there too, ages 4 and 6, and he had a lot of fun watching them play, and they had fun retrieving the toys he would drop on the floor.

Eliot was also SUPER talkative at Thanksgiving

dinner. Just babbling, kind of loudly, nearly the whole time. It was very funny and cute.

The next day, Friday, we drove south across the Columbia River back into Oregon in search of snow onMt. Hood (Mt. Adams did not have enough snow yet; it's lower than Mt. Hood). We found some, and we cross-country skied for a couple hours. Eliot had a great time.

Saturday, we left the cabin and drove toward home, through the Columbia River Gorge, and stopped for a really nice hike along Herman Creek. Then, on the way home from that, it was still light out (barely), so we decided to show Eliot Multnomah Falls. He was pretty flabbergasted by the whole thing.

In other news, Eliot is saying Mama, Dada, and once he tried to say Banana (he said "bana" and then "nana" while eating a banana). He also says Ba a lot. Sometimes we think it means ball, and sometimes Blondie, and sometimes he just says it because it's fun to say.

We're doing Baby Sign Language with him, and he makes the sign for Tree, Dog, and More. When he is eating, and you ask him, "Do you want more? Show me the more sign," he does it and gives us a huge smile. He thinks it's so fun. He is very proud of himself when he makes the More sign. However, I think he kind of thinks the More sign means Food in general... eventually I think he'll figure out the distinction.

And yesterday, when I wasn't home, Brady said he pulled up to standing next to the couch, holding on to the couch. Then he let go with both hands, and stood on his own for a few seconds, and then put his hands back on the couch. He is working on that balance.

Last night we went with friends and their son, Isaac (20 months), to the zoo for Zoo Lights. That was very cool. Eliot saw a few monkeys, and an elephant, and a turtle and some fish, he thought it all was pretty neat.

Overall we are having soooo much fun with him.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. We took them with my phone, because the battery on our camera went dead.